Oct 2, 2012

Meet Ricoh

I never thought I'd want a dummy point and shoot film camera (like the ones my parents used when I was growing up), but after enjoying my Fuji x100 so much, and becoming less and less of a fan of lugging my heavier film cameras around on my days off from shooting, I decided to look into my best options for this category. J pointed out the Ricoh GR1 to me, saying that it was the classic, sort of analogous to what a Hasselblad is for the 6x6 category.

I was instantly sold because it had a nice 28mm f2.8 fixed lens; i.e., it's like my iPhone on film! Just a teensy bit slower than my iPhone lens. And now that I'm so used to "seeing" things in 28mm, I thought this would be perfect. I scoured eBay for a few days, missing a few good deals, and then finally making an offer on one that was listed in auction style. (On a side note, I almost always offer a Buy It Now price when I want something and the seller has listed it as an auction. It usually works!)

When I received the camera, my first thought was, "DANG this thing is tiny!" It weighs almost nothing and I was wondering how the film even fits in it hah. See the first photo for scale. I shot a test roll on it and got it developed at Walgreens with pretty crappy prints. Overall I am pretty pleased with this little guy. Of course, there's still the parallax issue (so it's not quite as easy to compose with) but the viewfinder has a guidance line that shows you where the top of your photo actually starts.

So cute and tiny! Can't wait to put some black and white film in this.

iPhone shot of a few of the crappy quality prints (you can't tell from this distance but trust me). I didn't get scans so this is all I've got to show for now.

I hope you don't mind my asking this, but do you touch up your iPhone photos at all? I don't have an iPhone, but I'm constantly amazed by the quality of photos taken with an iPhone. The bottom shot looks like it has a slight grain to it, although that may be the photographed photos themselves!

I love the composition of that top photo and all the fall colors in the bottom.

Your photos are beyond beautiful no matter what camera you use (I'm a little bit obsessed with your instagram feed, hah!). And I'm with you on the Walgreens quality...so terrible! I only use them in a pinch and I almost always have to get them to reprint because of their silly auto-correction system. Seriously though, Alice, these are wonderful.

Hi Alice! Isn't it so much fun getting a new toy to play with? I just bought a Pentax K1000 to play with film out and about in the city and I love it. I also took my test roll to Walgreen and they did an excellent job initially but on my second roll, they weren't so good so I guess it's a hit or miss thing... Your photos are lovely as always.

About

The title, "Lingered Upon," is taken from one of my favorite T.S. Eliot poems, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Here, it could mean that I lingered upon some moment and made a photo of it. On this blog, you'll find both personal work and "work" work, with plenty of travel and style mixed in.